Celia's Puppies by Claudia Hall Christian Page A

and Val saved me.”
    “ The photos we just talked
about?” the interviewer asked.
    Mike nodded.
    “ What was it like for you,
Val?”
    “ I went numb for a while,”
she said. “Then I got mad. I told the Army that I wanted Mike’s
body. I insisted, in fact. I hired lawyers, talked to Senators and
banged on any door I could bang on. When we just got bullshit back,
we started to look for Mike.”
    “ We?”
    “ My brother and I,”
Valerie said. “We hired ex-military or ex-CIA guys to search for
him. We compiled stacks of paper, spent… lots of money, but never
found Mike. We were able to convince the Army there was a
possibility Mike was alive.”
    “ So Val’s looking for
Mike. And Mike you’re waiting for the head guy to determine your
fate?”
    “ Yeah. We were there about
six months before that guy showed up. And wanted information.
They... I don’t remember most of it. Then they found the photos.
Pornography. Evil. I fought for them, which made things worse for
me. They pinned me down and cut my face.” Mike pointed to a scar on
his jaw. “I thought they were going to cut my face off. I wouldn’t
give up the photos. So they… Anyway, I lost the photos.”
    The room was silent. Every face held round,
shocked eyes. Even the interviewer was at a loss for words. The
cameraman wiped a renegade tear. When Alex cleared her throat, the
interviewer startled then came back to herself.
    “ What was that like?” the
interviewer asked.
    “ I lost my mind. Days
passed. One guy tried to kill himself.”
    “ He said you kept him from
bleeding to death,” the interviewer said.
    “ Yeah, I guess I did. I
wanted to kill myself but...”
    He looked at Valerie then stroked her face
with his hand. She smiled.
    “ In my insanity, I would
draw Val’s picture in the dirt. I wasn’t an artist or a painter or
anything. I thought I’d go to medical school when I got
out.”
    “ What happened to the
photos?”
    “ I thought they destroyed
the photos. Pornography, you know,” Mike said. “But they needed
money. Bad. They put the photos up for sale. Val’s Dad found them
in like two hours and paid a lot of money for them.”
    “ Do you know how much?”
the interviewer asked.
    “ Two or three million I
think,” Mike said. “He won’t say.”
    “ My Dad and I weren’t in
contact then,” Valerie said. “I didn’t know he bought the photos.
He took the photos and my brother’s file on Mike to our Colorado
Senator, Patrick Hargreaves. The Senator took the photos and file
from my Dad and said he’d take care of it.”
    “ Did you know that?” the
interviewer asked.
    “ No,” Valerie said. “I was
already an actress. I had put this shell around me… so I couldn’t
get hurt, I guess. By then, I wasn’t speaking to my brother or my
father.”
    Mike pulled her closer to him then kissed
her head.
    “ Those photos? That’s how
they found me,” Mike said. “Senator Hargreaves sent them through
the channels and the Fey team was notified within forty-eight
hours. They were in the air within a week.”
    “ The Fey team?” the
interviewer asked.
    “ Special Forces. They used
to get hostages. That’s what they did. Retrieved hostages. They
were killed a couple years ago.”
    Mike looked across at Alex. She gave him a
‘good job’ smile.
    “ What happened when they
rescued you?”
    “ I’ll tell you what I
remember. At night, they chained me up in this area with the other
guys. I mean, I wasn’t really sane. I’d sleep a couple hours then
draw Val’s photos. The guys helped me get more charcoal or chalky
rocks for the photos. I guess these pictures, so full of beauty and
love, bolstered us. Well, they found them and it was not
good.
    “ They figured that I drew
them, so they isolated me from the rest. I was sure they were going
to kill me. I just knew it. After one particularly bad… evening, I
fell flat on the floor. My arms were out in front of me. I wanted
to die. I wanted to just disappear.